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New York Knicks center DeAndre Jordan is one of three NBA stars who have invested in Beyond Meat, the company announced Wednesday. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Knicks center DeAndre Jordan is one of three current or former NBA All-Stars, including Boston Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving and Houston Rockets point guard Chris Paul, investing in Beyond Meat, a plant-based meat substitute Jordan couldn't stop raving about in an exclusive interview.

“I believe in the product, and it’s something that I really do care about," Jordan said, "and hopefully it’ll be a company that other people care about in the future."

Over the last several years, Jordan has dabbled in cutting red meat out of his diet during the summer. He went pescatarian one summer before going full vegetarian for two straight summers. At that point, Jordan thought, "I should be able to do this for an entire season."

But Jordan and his trainer were worried about energy levels, “me being able to sustain endurance and not lose my strength and be able to go through a full 82-game season plus playoffs with practices and flights and not have my body breaking down."

After doing a slew of tests with his trainer and his nutritionist, the results were actually the opposite of what Jordan thought they'd be, and he's averaged 11 points, over 13 rebounds and just over a block per game this season on a plant-based diet. And Beyond Meat provides palatable protein that can be hard to find in vegan or vegetarian diets.

Photo courtesy of Beyond Meat

Photo courtesy of Beyond Meat

“It’s been great for me this season," Jordan said. "Now that I look back at it, the red meat definitely weighed me down a little bit, and it takes a long time to break down. Each person’s body is different, but for me, I lost a lot of what I would say was bad weight.”

About two or three years back, Beth Moskowitz, the executive director of Sports Spectacular—a nonprofit "dedicated to linking world-class athletes and innovative medical research to advance healthier futures"—told him about the plant-based Beyond Meat burger at a time when Jordan was looking to switch his diet up. Moskowitz raved about it to Jordan, and he wanted to try it and hear a little more about it.

“I tried it, and it was so good, and now I have my family and some of my friends eating it," Jordan said. "It’s just something I definitely believe in.”

Now Jordan is putting his money where his mouth is, although he and Beyond Meat declined to disclose the amount he’s investing or whether he’s receiving an equity stake in the company.

Jordan is far from the only NBA player who's experimented with cutting red meat. A 2017 Bleacher Report article profiled Kyrie Irving's vegan diet and also mentioned fellow players including Damian Lillard, Wilson Chandler and Enes Kanter who have all gone either vegetarian or vegan. In fact, after the B/R article came out, Beyond Meat reached out and sent Irving some of its product.

Kyrie Irving is one of three NBA stars investing in Beyond Meat, the company announced Wednesday.

Photo courtesy of Rick Bern

"It was good timing as I was struggling to find quality plant-based foods that still had a lot of flavor," Irving said in a press release. "After I tried their products, I knew immediately that this was a company I wanted to be involved with."

Jordan said that he and Irving both discovered Beyond Meat individually and didn't speak to Irving or Paul until he was already fully involved with the company.

"I believed in it from the beginning," Jordan said. "It was something that I wanted to change for myself, my body and my career. Just my overall lifestyle."

Jordan said he’s unsure whether he’ll be in Beyond Meat commercials or whether he’ll just be an investor behind the scenes, but wants to be "extremely involved" in getting the company out there.

“Whatever I could do to help spread the word and be a positive voice for it, not just somebody who invests money," he said. "I’m going to be involved as much as I can be, because it’s something that’s in my refrigerator non-stop, and I love it. So I want to get other people to at least try it and give it a chance.”

New York Knicks center DeAndre Jordan misses a dunk during the second half of the team's NBA basketball game against the Detroit Pistons on Friday, Feb. 8, 2019, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

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"I believe that this movement toward plant-based meats among athletes, for the dual purpose of supporting performance and advancing broader social and environmental objectives, holds tremendous promise for shifting behavior in this and future generations," said Ethan Brown, Beyond Meat's founder and CEO.

Jordan was traded from Dallas to New York on Feb. 1 in the Kristaps Porzingis blockbuster and while he's enjoyed the city, the biggest adjustment he's had to make is wearing a coat to practice because of the cold NYC winter.

“The organization has so much history, and New York fans are extremely involved. That’s a definite positive," he said. "They love their team. They root for the team if they’re up 20, down 20, if it’s a winning season, a losing season. They’re diehard fans, and that’s something you could appreciate.”

Jordan also happens to be close with Kevin Durant, whose free agency status after the season, and rumored interest in the Knicks this offseason, has overshadowed nearly every other NBA storyline either on or off the court.

“He’s one of my best friends," Jordan said, "but we’re not talking about that right now.”

Jordan said he doesn't press Durant about these issues.

"If it’s something that comes up, then we talk about it. If not, we don’t talk about it," Jordan said. "But our relationship goes beyond basketball. I guess at some point, if we talk about it then we talk about it."

Team LeBron's Kevin Durant, of the Golden State Warriors receives the MVP trophy after the NBA All-Star basketball game as NBA commissioner Adam Silver, left, looks on Sunday, Feb. 17, 2019, in Charlotte, N.C. The Team LeBron won 178-164. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

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Jordan, a free agent himself after the season, found a rental in the city that he likes rather than living out of a hotel for the rest of the year. He said he's focused on building the culture Knicks head coach David Fizdale wants the team to have, while Durant is focused on helping the Golden State Warriors win yet another championship.

"Like I said, we’re really close friends," Jordan said. "So we talk a lot. We hang out a lot. I wish him nothing but the best with what he has going on in Golden State. He’s a free agent after this year, I guess, we’ll see what happens. That’s not something that we talk about.”

What Jordan and Durant may talk about more easily the rest of the season, is his investment in Beyond Meat and how more and more NBA players are embracing a plant-based lifestyle that increasingly cuts red meat out of the picture.